Climate: This Canadian Train Creates a ‘Mini Blizzard’ as It Plows Through Snow, but That’s Not All

A freight train in Canada pushes through several feet of fresh, fallen snow. The effect is visually apocalyptic. But to CityLab editor James West, something else stands out.

“It's unclear what precisely the locomotive is carrying, but it's definitely pulling tankers,” West writes. “Its cargo may very well be oil, given that its destination is St John, New Brunswick, the location of Canada's biggest oil refinery, the Irving Oil Refinery.”

In fact, this refinery was the same destination of the train that derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in July 2013, which killed 47 people “and prompted calls across Canada and the United States for tougher safety standards for the booming oil-by-rail network.”

Read more about the safety issues in North American freight oil delivery at CityLab.